"The Bridge" is the musical culmination of my M.M. degree in Intermedia Music Technology at the University of Oregon. It is a three-movement suite comprised of original music that I have composed over the last several months. The Bridge to which the title refers is the musical bridge that I have tried to create between the styles of popular electronic music and academic electronic music. There is a vast disparity between these two musical styles, and myself being an advocate for both, I wanted to show, in musical terms, that the two styles do not have to be mutually exclusive.

To realize my musical vision, I utilized the seemingly endless creative capabilities of Ableton live, Kyma, and Max/MSP. I wrote the material for the first movement using Ableton Live. I then took two samples from within that movement and brought them into Kyma, where, using my APC40 and Kyma, I transformed them into an array of different sounds and ideas that make up the second movement. To create the third movement, I took 40 different audio samples from the previous two movements, and then reshaped and recontextualized them to create new sonic ideas. To achieve the live performance I will be utilizing my Monome (an exceptionally adaptable minimalist musical interface) as my sole controller. Within my computer I will be using Ableton Live to play and arrange the music, and Max/MSP to program, route, and map the data that is being received from my Monome.

As the title suggests, the first movement is the "popular" style, the second is the "academic" style, and the third is a fusion of both, or rather "The Bridge." Each movement also highlights a different aspect of electronic musical performance. The first highlights the mapping of an interface/controller (in this case, my Monome) to specific notes and/or sounds, thereby turning the Monome into an actual musical instrument. The second movement highlights the Monome being used as an effects modulator, and the third movement highlights the Monome being used as a sampler, looper, and sequencer. It is my sincerest hope that this piece help practitioners of both musical styles understand one another, and that even though the styles be vastly different, we (electronic musicians) are all drawing from more or less the same musical palette.

I want to give a very special, heartfelt thanks to Dr. Jeffery Stolet, Jon Bellona, and Jeremy Schropp for their ongoing help and support throughout this entire process. I couldn't have done this without them.

This performance was recorded during the Future Music Oregon concert on April 28th, 2012 at the University of Oregon's School of Music and Dance.